Customer Reviews

Notorious: The Life Of Ingrid Bergman

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Spellbound, Notorious, Anastasia & many other films come to mind when one thinks of Bergman.

This is a detail packed book covering her personal & professional life.

If you want to learn about her relationships, romantic & professional, how she developed & utilized her talent as an actress, & why people the world over admired, loved her & for a brief time despised her, then this is the book for you.

A wonderful collection of photographs is included, as well as an excellent Bibliography & collection of notes.

This is the story of an actress whose performances on screen & her life off the screen changed peoples ideas of what it was to be a woman, & is a must read for Movie fans.

I'd purchased this biography to learn more about a fascinating woman who left an indelible mark on her profession, acting. But my disappointment was great; this is less a biography than an infatuated paean -- something one might write for a fan club or public relations campaign. Though Mr. Spoto and his crew of researchers obviously undertook considerable investigation into Bergman's life, Mr. Spoto failed to complete the last -- and most important -- task of a biographer: a critical analysis of his subject. Instead, throughout the book, Mr. Spoto repeatedly (and I emphasize "repeatedly") flogs readers with superlatives about Bergman's acting, looks, intelligence, strength, spirit, wisdom, and character. Why the Pope hasn't yet canonized this woman, based on Mr. Spoto's writings, is beyond me -- perhaps it is only because she was not Catholic. I do hope that someday another biographer -- say, someone with the talents of Edward Tytell (biographer of Ezra Pound) or Noel Riley Fitch (biographer of Sylvia Beach and Julia Child) -- might undertake the task of penning a more informative, insightful biography of Bergman. The woman certainly deserves this.

"Notorious" is well-written and deeply moving. Thebare facts of Bergman's life indicate that she was ambitious,impulsive, and not a little selfish. And of course we all know that she was beautiful and incomparably compelling. Spoto makes a good case for Bergman as passionate artist, as well, and while the pursuit of Truth does not automatically excuse all bad behavior, it certainly explains a great deal. Ingrid Bergman has gone from saint to sinner to martyr. Donald Spoto restores her humanity.

She was Hollywood's golden girl, an actress who shone on the silver screen but never burned out. Despite worldwide fame, Ingrid Bergman's life was riddled with tragedies and problems, including an affair that could have wrecked her career.

Ingrid Bergman lost her parents, then her beloved aunt, as a young girl. Growing up in Nazi Germany, she soon became an actress and rose to fame, first in Sweden and then in Hollywood. Then problems arose -- Ingrid met one of her favorite directors, Roberto Rossellini, and left her husband for a whirlwind movie shoot/love affair. The scandal was overwhelming, and it was years until the stigma evaporated -- after which Ingrid was appreciated all over again for her talent and courage.

Donald Spoto's telling of Bergman's life is solid and informative, with quotations by Ingrid, her husbands, children, costars, directors, and lots of other people who had known her. Letters are reproduced, and her different performances are analyzed (some of these movies were downright terrible).

He also does a pretty good job of analyzing Ingrid's motivations -- why she was attracted to the elitist Peter and passionate Roberto, her strong artistic sense, her workaholic attitude, and her feelings about her children and loves. It's a pretty good analysis, overall.

Despite the title, the book isn't a dirt-fest. In fact, that's one of its weaknesses. Oh, it shouldn't be showing only her flaws, but Spoto seems to adore her a little too much. She herself is quoted as saying that she's imperfect. Even though Spoto reveals her weaknesses and failures, he doesn't seem to think any of them really matter.

It definitely could have used better perspective, but "Notorious: The Life of Ingrid Bergman" is a solid, interesting, well-written look at the life of a talented, artistic woman. Highly recommended.

I was a young adult when Ingrid died and I was not aware of her fame and reputation as a film star. I saw her occasionally in old movies and was fascinated by her glowing beauty and talent. I was appalled by her appearance in her role as Golda Meir; she had changed so much, but now I know why. Spoto's biography about Ingrid revealed her intimately -- from her childhood to her death, throughout her marriages and affairs, the successes of her career, and relationships with friends and family. I didn't know that she had been banned from America for her "sins", and I didn't know she had other children besides Isabella Rosselini. In spite of her foibles, Ingrid still seems like a great woman, thanks to the passionate -- and compassionate -- telling of her life story by Spoto. The audio version of the book was completely compelling to listen to, enhanced by the reader, C.M. Herbert, whose voice had a quality similar to Ingrid's, and therefore made Ingrid come even more to life.

...so have you never made a mistake? We can thank her money-grubbing first husband Petter Lindstrom for her "indiscretions" with Roberto Rossolini and others---if he had spent more time as a loving mate instead of a calculating business manager who belittled Ingrid and put her on a paltry allowance, then maybe none of the nonsense which haunted her for so long would have happened at all. He played the boss, but she was the bread winner, and the shame of it is she let him get away with it!!

She had the same emotional needs as any other woman OR man. But only under the moralistic hyprocrisy of the U.S. at the time could such a woman (I doubt if a man would) have been so pilloried---the rest of the planet was not so hung up as we on attempting to be the guardian of world morals, especially when we had more than enough of our own dirty laundry we kept trying to hide.

No matter, because her beauty, wit and talent counted for more, and in the end she won anyway. She knew her craft well (who else would have felt secure enough to suggest script changes to Hitchcock, and have him acquiesce??) and lived it not at all for money or fame, but rather for the sake of the craft itself. And what she left to stage and screen through the body of her work, through her very presence, will forever be her only true legacy.

This book isn't about everything bad that Ingrid did, even though that's the impression the title gives. This is a well and thoroughly researched and very readable biography. Donald Spoto speaks about Ingrid with respect, and although he mentions her weaknesses and failings, I don't feel he's doing it to spread dirt around. If it happened it happened, but he doesn't spend half the book talking about it.

Except where it concerns Rossellini, and that is perfectly understandable, because everyone who knows about Ingrid knows that was a real and terrible time in her life. I think it's sad that she went through all that and the marriage ended up falling apart anyway.

Anyway, basically he speaks of her work. She went crazy without it, and really as I think about it her life was work. That's what I remember froming reading this.

It is a very good book, and like everything I have read by Spoto, is well-written and highly interesting. I recommend it very much.

Is this a creative review or what? I seem to be suffering some sort of blank as far as reviews are concerned this morning.

This is the third Donald Spoto biography I have read. Out of the three, this one is the best. Spoto obviously has a lot of affection and respect for Bergman, and it looks like he tried his best on this one... however, we are missing some of the details here.

Some parts of if are certainly beautifully written - for example, the last chapter when time comes for the end of Ingrid's life - but there are a lot of gaps and spaces. The most interesting aspect of Ingrid's life was obviously the years 1949 and 1950, when her scandal with Rossellini broke. He does a mildly good job of covering this event,but we could have certainly gotten more.

In his Acknowledgments in the beginning of the book, Spoto earnestly gives credit to Petter Lindstrom and Lars Schmidt, (Ingrid's first and third husbands), Pia Lindstrom (Bergman's daughter with her first husband), and numerous others that could have contributed to this being a great biography. But as you read you will scratch your head, wondering where are the passages from Ingrid's diaries and personal papers, like he promises? Where are the citations from her husbands and daughter? If I were Spoto, I would have put the Acknowledgments in the back of the book so people would not be scanning the pages as they read, searching for all this confidential information. We lack a lot of information from the Rossellini era - Rossellini died in the 70's, and maybe he could not get interviews with her children with Rossellini. But there must have been at least family friends, neighbors, etc. who would be willing to give us a better outlook on her time in Italy.

Another problem of Spoto's is when he runs dry of information, he just pulls out his thesaurus and uses a bunch of fancy adjectives, synonyms, and superlatives (as another reviewer stated) to anaylze her roles in movies and the way she played them. He doesn't seem to get the point that these are not textbooks on acting he is writing here, because I have faced this annoyance with every book of his that i have read.

I was also unhappy with the format of this book. It is quite big and heavy and not the most reader friendly. The quality of photos look as if they were scanned from another book.

If anything, Spoto does have a lot of respect for Bergman and tries his best to make this worthwhile. I hope to try and catch Ingrid's autobiography next, even though Spoto claims in the book it is a sloppy piece of work... I simply wasn't satisfied with this. Ingrid was such a great star. She deserves a well authorized book.

Ingrid Bergman was an actress who acted on stage, screen and
television in five languages . . . doing so, she won three Academy
Awards, a Tony and an Emmy . . . and she lived a fascinating
life, as depicted in NOTORIOUS by Donald Spoto.

This is one of the best biographies that I have read in quite some
time . . . reading it made me feel as if I got to know Bergman
and what made her tick.

If you're a movie fan like me, you'll enjoy the behind-the-scenes
stories about her career, such as this one account of how she
came upon her screen name:

* The first meeting between Ingrid and David (Selznick), over cold
lamb and whiskey, continued as he returned to the subject of
her name, which he said was too German. What about renaming
her Ingrid Berryman? "Bergman is a good name and I like it," she
replied. "If I fail in American, I can go back to Sweden and still
be Ingrid Bergman."

I also liked reading about her take on acting:

* I haven't read many of those books about acting. I think
instinctively, and even the first time I read a script I know
exactly how the woman is. That is why I turn down many
things I don't understand. I must understand the character
completely; I mean, there must be something inside me that
is that person, and then immediately I feel it. It is more
a feeling than a technique.

And though there were a lot of names used throughout the book,
I did not feel that Spoto was mean-spirited in what he
had to say about Bergman or her many lovers . . . after all she
was, to quote the book's title, somewhat notorious . . . and she
did leave her first husband and daughter to have both an affair
and child out of wedlock with Italian director Roberto Rosselini.

Yet it was Spoto's account of her non-affair with Alfred Hitchcock
that I found particularly moving:

* But Hitchcock's immediate response that warm September afternoon
in his office was to remind Ingrid of the final scene in SPELLBOUND
between her and Michael Chekov, who had played her mentor. "It is very sad
to love and lose somebody," Hitchcock quoted, repeating the dialogue
of Dr. Brulov as he embraced the weeping Dr. Peterson, who fears she has
lost her lover forever. "But in a while you will forget and you will take up the
threads of your life where you left it not long ago. And you will work hard. There
is lots of happiness in working hard--maybe the most." The speech now had
a different application.

Ingrid at once recognized the words, and her eyes filled with tears. Hitchcock
had offered her com fort with the same words he spoke for himself: what other
refuge had they, these two lovers, but the work that lay before them? She might
not have Capa, but she had her work, and now her work was with him; as
for Hitchcock, he knew all too poignantly that yes, indeed, her work was with him,
but her heart was not--or rather her heart was with him as a daughter and friend.
They were both, in a way, lost souls. That quiet afternoon, they sat--allies in
distress, sipping gin martinis, smoking too much and finding in their unspoken
sympathies for each other the courage that comes from the deepest kind of love,
a caring beyond the jungle of sex and into the clearer field of affection.

I now want to go back and rent not only SPELLBOUND, but such other
Bergman classics as INTERMEZZO, GASLIGHT, ANASTASIA, and,
of course, NOTORIOUS.